Jury: Girlfriend of Accused Cop Killer Guilty; Judge Not So Sure

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 7:51 AM

TAMPA | A jury of 12 peers decided Wednesday that Cortnee Brantley committed a federal crime while trading phone calls and text messages with Dontae Morris in the minutes after the fatal shootings of two Tampa police officers.

By Patty RyanTampa Bay Times

TAMPA | A jury of 12 peers decided Wednesday that Cortnee Brantley committed a federal crime while trading phone calls and text messages with Dontae Morris in the minutes after the fatal shootings of two Tampa police officers.

Guilty, the jury said.

Not so fast, came the response from U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr.

The judge did not take the routine step of formally adjudicating Brantley guilty. It's unclear whether he will.

Skeptical from the outset of the charge against her, he reserved the right to rule on pending motions. They include a motion for acquittal, which her attorney renewed in a filing late Wednesday. A hearing has not been scheduled.

Brantley, out on bail, left the courtroom without a sentencing date. She did not comment.

Morris — her boyfriend, captured after the largest manhunt in city history — awaits trial on murder charges.

After Wednesday's verdict, Tampa police Chief Jane Castor walked up Florida Avenue to the courthouse and spoke with the widows of slain Officers Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis. When she emerged, she said they were satisfied with the jury's decision.

"As we have stated all along, what Cortnee Brantley did that day was wrong," Castor said. "She was there when two of our officers were murdered in cold blood and she did nothing to assist them. In fact, she aided the killer in his escape, putting our entire community in jeopardy for four days."

As for the absence of a formal finding of guilt, the chief said it is in the court's hands. "We have to respect that process," she said.

Jurors deliberated 5 1/2 hours.

Twice during the trial, they saw a police dashboard camera video that captured the June 29, 2010, shootings at an East Tampa traffic stop. The video showed Brantley at the wheel of a Toyota Camry. Her passenger identified himself as Morris. Officer Curtis questioned Brantley about a missing tag before approaching the other side of the car with Officer Kocab.

After Morris rose from the Camry, the officers fell to the ground, each shot in the head.

Brantley fled in the car and Morris left on foot, but police uncovered evidence that the two immediately began communicating by phone and text message. They traded texts about her car's location and needing to move it.

Those exchanges formed the basis for the jury's decision that Brantley was guilty of "misprision of a felony," a seldom-tried charge that alleged she knew Morris was a felon with a firearm and ammunition and committed an "affirmative act of concealment" to hide that from law enforcement.

The charge is rife with nuanced legal requirements, explained in court to the jury. For the concealment to occur, intent is required. But intent alone is not enough. The plan has to be executed.

Nor was it enough for jurors to return a simple verdict of guilty. They had to specify the act of concealment they saw.

The jury wrote:

"The defendant knowingly and willfully concealed her knowledge of the possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon from the authorities by coordinating via phone calls and text messages with Dontae Morris."

But Moody, after a bench conference with attorneys, wanted to know more. He sent jurors back to consider whether they should attempt to clarify the statement or leave the wording unchanged. The jurors met briefly and returned with their wording unchanged.

"We just agreed to leave it where it is," juror Telesforo Valle told the Tampa Bay Times.

Valle, a Temple Terrace landscaper on his first jury, was disappointed to learn the verdict was imperiled. "A little," he said, "because that's the whole process of a jury: deciding guilty or not."

The latest motion for acquittal, filed after the verdict, suggests what might have been missing from the jury's finding.

"(I)t appears that the jury determined that, at best, there was nothing more than a coordinating of a possible plan to conceal," defense attorney Grady C. Irvin Jr. wrote in the motion.